


Not Your Everyday Man

by NephilimEQ



Category: Eureka (TV)
Genre: Banter, Didn't Know They Were Dating, F/M, Feels, First Dates, Flirting, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Not Canon Compliant, Plot Twists, Slow Burn, Smart Carter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22933933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NephilimEQ/pseuds/NephilimEQ
Summary: Sheriff Jack Carter isn't as ignorant as everyone thinks. Despite the geniuses at GD, he's just a bit smarter than they expect. And his feelings for the Head of GD Security just might be shifting...
Relationships: Jack Carter/Jo Lupo
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	1. What They Don't Know

Sheriff Jack Carter stared at the screen in front of him, silently reminding himself to keep the blank look of confusion on his face. On days like these, it wasn’t too hard: for supposed geniuses, they really _were_ idiots, just as the Group had warned him.

“Uh…” he said, continuing to stare blankly. “What am I looking at here?”

Allison proceeded to respond in her usual, long-winded and slightly condescending way, while Carter used the opportunity to tune her out and silently wracked his brain.

 _Okay…_ he thought to himself. _Now, how would Jack Carter respond? Remember…_ Jack _Carter, not Johnson Carter. You’re the simple, layman sheriff: Jack Carter._

Finally, he replied to her ramblings with, “Wait…so we simply have to turn off,” he gestured with his hand, “that thingy? The advanced optical, uh, whatchamacallit?” He inwardly cringed at how ridiculous he sounded, but pushed forward anyway, selling his part.

Henry nodded.

“Yes, but in order to do so _safely_ , we need to be able to deactivate its outer shield, otherwise,” he said, motioning towards the picture on the screen. “The whole thing could become unstable and end up frying all of Eureka’s electronics…”

Jack saw Henry’s genuinely worried look and, reluctantly, gave up some of his hand without revealing all that he actually understood and said, “Uh, doesn’t McPherson have that new thingy of his that tunes in with optical frequencies to do, you know…whatever it does? Can’t we use that?”

He inwardly grinned when he saw four pairs of eyes look at him in shock, consisting also of Fargo and Zane.

Surprisingly enough, Zane was the first to agree with him.

“Actually…that _could_ work.” He looked at the three scientists’ eyes that were now focused on him with incredulous looks on their faces, and Carter watched in amusement as Zane winced slightly and then explained. “All we would need to do is adjust the settings so that it’s on the same frequency as the A.O.W.R. and I could do that here in my lab.”

Fargo slowly nodded.

“Well, considering what’s at stake, as head of GD, I fully authorize you to do whatever is necessary to turn that thing off.” And with that, and a pointed look at both Henry and Allison, he walked as imperiously as he could out of the room…and then ruined it by stopping in the doorway, looking back at Carter and saying, “Oh…Dungeons & Dragons is at your place tomorrow night, right? Seven?”

Jack rolled his eyes and gave the younger man a nod. With that reassurance, Fargo left the room completely just as Jo Lupo, GD’s very own head of Security and ex-employee of his, walked into the room, an amused look on her face at the last bit of conversation she’d heard.

She waited until Fargo was out of earshot before saying, “Dungeons & Dragons, huh? I thought you were more of a Battleship type of guy.”

Her grin was wide, and he responded by saying, “Yeah, well, don’t tell Fargo that. He’s been kinda down recently, so I suggested we have a game night one night and made the mistake of letting him pick the game, so we now have a twice weekly D&D night.”

She let out a small laugh and gave him a look, casting a glance around the room only to see Allison and Zane hard at work.

Jo’s mocking grin, though, had softened slightly, as did her eyes, and she softly said, “He’s been having a lot of pressure, recently, from the DOD…it’s nice that you’re helping him.”

Jack just shrugged.

“Hey, it’s what I’m supposed to do right? Protect and serve? Admit it,” he said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants, “If Fargo gets sad, then he gets depressed, and then depression turns into homicidal anger combined with his dangerously genius mind, and the next thing you know we’re trying to explain to the government why there’s a crater where the Department of Defense used to be.”

Jo chuckled at that and gave him another smile.

“You’re not wrong about that.”

Jack motioned to the immensely thickly clipboard in her hand. 

“So, what’s that?”

She let out a long-suffering sigh and he tensed for what might be coming. He knew her tones and could read her sighs as easily as he could his own and wasn’t surprised when he heard her long-suffering tone, “As head of GD’s security, because of the fact that we’re under imminent threat of total electronic shutdown, that would also include the destruction of backup generators,” she added as an important side note, “I’m required to check all electronic security in all of the labs and give out hard-copy instructions on specific manual overrides for each individual lab in case of actual electrical meltdown.”

“Ah,” he replied, giving her his usual look and she just smiled.

“Yeah, I know,” she said, gesturing to the papers in her hands. “You don’t envy my job now, do you?”

He gave her a grin as he snarked, “No money in the world…”

She rolled her eyes and then pointed with her head towards Allison and Zane in the corner of the lab and asked, “So, what are they doing?”

Not thinking about what he was saying, he answered, waving a hand around as he spoke, “Oh, Zane is just recalibrating the ionic and electrical sensors in McPherson’s quasi-optical slash ionic gamma inducer so that Allison and Henry can go ahead and use it on the Advanced Optical Wegman’s Ray, so that it’ll safely shut down without emitting any electro-magnetic pulses that could wipe out all of Eureka. It’s fairly simple. My idea.”

Jo looked at him in surprise, wondering at what he’d just said, but Jack, realizing what he’d almost revealed, quickly covered.

He pointed towards the three scientists on the other side of the room and then placed his hands on his waist.

“At least…that’s what they told me.”

He easily slipped on his adorable, layman’s expression, slipped his hands back into his pockets, and hoped that Jo bought it…and silently sighed in relief when she just gave him a weird look and said, “Okay…I’ll just go ahead and give them their papers…”

With that, she walked across the room, and the sheriff, seeing his moment, quickly escaped the room, knowing that the problem was pretty much solved and that they would no longer need him around. Of course, they never thought that they needed him until they royally screwed something up…which, in Eureka, was every other day, at _best_.

\--

He stepped into his house and smiled when he heard...

“HELLO, SHERIFF. HOW WAS YOUR DAY AT WORK?”

He smiled to himself as he absently kicked off his shoes and unbuttoned his uniform top and walked into the kitchen, and then said fondly to his house, “Good, Sarah. Thank you for asking. By the way, what’s on the menu for dinner tonight?”

“QUESADILLAS, AS WELL AS CHIPS AND SALSA. DIRECTOR FARGO IS COMING OVER TOMORROW NIGHT, SO I MADE HIM HIS FAVORITE DESSERT: DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BROWNIES WITH MINT. DO YOU THINK HE WILL LIKE THEM?”

Jack smiled as he heard this, opening the fridge and pulling out a cold soda.

“Yes, Sarah. I think he’ll love them.”

Taking a sip of his drink, he walked across the kitchen and into the living room, deciding to watch whatever game was on at the moment.

“Hey, Sarah,” he said as he sat down, crossing his legs in front of him and propping them on the table. “What games are on right now?” His house A.I. immediately started to list off several games, and after hearing five or six, he cut her off. “The Penguins game, please. I think some mindless violence of men wearing too much protective gear that makes them look fat over a ridiculous small black object that’s impossible to see ninety percent of the time is perfect.”

With that, the television snapped on and he let himself sink into the couch and watched as the skaters flashed by on the screen, indistinguishable from one another, sticks scraping on ice.

He’d been watching for about fifteen minutes, and had actually started to enjoy the game, when the screen suddenly went dark.

“What the…”

But then a familiar blue and white logo appeared on the darkened plasma screen and he groaned. “Sarah, secure the front door, no one in for the next two hours, understood?”

“YES, SHERIFF.”

“Oh, and Sarah?” he added, getting her attention once more. “Privacy, please.”

“OF COURSE, SHERIFF.”

And with that, he listened as she locked and dead-bolted the front door and then, with an almost inaudible sound, he heard her click off. With a sigh of relief and exasperation, he looked at the television and the familiar logo that graced its’ screen and said…

“I’m alone. What do you need?”

The screen then changed to show him a face that was very familiar to him…but not to anyone else in Eureka.

“Johnson…it’s so _good_ to see you. How are you holding up out there?” drawled an unfortunately familiar accent, and Jack rolled his eyes and leaned back against his couch, pinching the bridge of his nose and silently wishing that he’d grabbed a beer instead of a soda. It would have at least loosened him up for the conversation that he was about to have. He never enjoyed talking to anyone from the Group, but he would put up with it so long as it continued to benefit him, as well.

“I saved their lives again, as usual…” He paused and then leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, his drink balanced in his hands. “And, as usual, not a single thank you from any of them.”

The man on the screen gave him a grim smile.

“Well, you knew what you were signing on for when we asked you to do this for us.”

Jack grimly nodded, looking at the drink in his hands, debating whether or not to head back to the kitchen and switch it out for a Coors, but as he pondered it seemed that Sterling saw how he looked at the glass bottle and he said, “I’ll need you sober for this conversation, Johnson…the orders I’m about to give you come from Drake himself.”

At hearing this, the sheriff sat up and quickly placed his drink to the side and looked down at the floor between his knees, hands clasped.

“Okay. Fine. What are the orders?”

As if hearing the exhaustion in his tone, Sterling got straight down to business and pulled something in front of him, beyond sight of the edge of the screen and then read what was on it, his tone somber.

“Certain…issues have come to light, recently. Mainly about a certain Dr. Blake at GD…” Sterling gave him a look, knowing that the sheriff had once been slightly attracted to the woman, but was reassured when he saw the man have absolutely no reaction to the mention of the woman’s name.

“What about her?”

Sterling continued.

“Her work is promising, but some of her projects are walking a very fine line with what she is approved to do with GD materials. Dr. Donovan, also, worries us.”

At hearing that, Jack couldn’t withhold the snort of laughter that escaped him. He was not in the least bit surprised that Zane Donovan had captured their notice and that they were worried about him; he was a dangerous man, unpredictable at his best. But, unlike Alison, he knew that the man had good in him. He wasn’t so sure about Alison anymore. She seemed to be more willing recently to forgo ethics in favor of pursuing science.

“No surprise there,” he muttered under his breath.

Sterling quickly explained what he needed him to do.

“We need you to keep a close watch on Dr. Blake’s projects…and since you’re playing the small-town, podunk sheriff, that shouldn’t be too hard to do,” he said, a slight sparkle in his eye as he spoke the words. He continued. “And of course, we expect you to do the same with Dr. Donovan.”

At hearing this, Jack held up a protesting hand.

“Uh, not really gonna work, Sterling. The man kind of hates my guts, you know…” The man gave him a look, so Jack quickly came up with an idea. “However, Zane does have a soft spot for Jo Lupo, head of GD Security? And she’s always looking for excuses to annoy him, so I could ask her to keep an eye on him for me. Wouldn’t be too far off from what she’s doing now, anyway, as head of GD security.” Sterling gave him a stern look, obviously not comfortable with the idea of someone outside of his influence being asked to help out on such sensitive matters. Jack saw the look, however, and quickly reassured his boss with, “I completely trust her, Sterling. She’s good at what she does, and she trusts me. She can do it.”

An odd look crossed his boss’s face, making Jack slightly uneasy.

“She used to be your Deputy, correct?”

“Yeah, she was,” the sheriff replied, wondering why the man was acting odd, but then forgot about it as Sterling quickly snapped back to military conciseness.

“Okay then, Johnson. I trust your judgment…don’t make it misplaced.”

And with that parting comment, along with a stern look, the screen went dark once more and then the game was suddenly back on the television. He watched as the Penguins got their first goal and then let out a deep sigh.

New orders, new focus. No more play.


	2. And So It Begins

Jack was back at GD the next morning, two coffees in his hands, ready to bribe his way into Allison’s lab. He walked towards Allison’s office, hoping to get on her good side, but was suddenly distracted by an unidentifiable blur that snagged one of the coffees from his hand, and he verbally protested against the blatant theft.

“Hey! That’s not for…”

His voice trailed off as he realized that it was Jo who had swiped the drink. She gave him a look, arching one perfectly shaped eyebrow.

“What? Not for me?” She gave him a sly smile, and he couldn’t help but start to grin. “Nice try, Carter…I could smell it as soon as you walked in the door. This one,” she lifted her hand with the cup in it, “Has almond macchiato, six packets of sugar, and three shots of matcha. Mine.” She then motioned to the one in his other hand. “That one, however, is straight black coffee, two sugars and nothing else in it. Alison’s.”

At that, his grin stretched wide across his lips and he let out a small laugh of incredulity.

“Nothing gets past you, Jo…”

She returned the smile and lifted her cup to him as she turned and walked away. 

“It better not…I’m head of security around here, remember? Thanks for the coffee!”

He let the smile linger on his face for a moment, feeling indulgent as he stared at her walking away, her ponytail bobbing behind her. It was times like this that made him happy to be Eureka. If he’d never come, he would have never met the friends that he had now. Like Jo. Turning on his heel, a faint smile still lingering on the corner of his mouth, he continued on to Allison’s office, silently putting 0a plan in his mind to see what she was working on.

He walked in and quickly caught her attention.

“Hey, Allison…”

She didn’t even look up as she said, absently, “Hey, Carter…”

He slowed his approach to her desk, seeing that she was in her zone of concentration. It was the perfect opportunity to strike.

“So,” he said slowly, still taking measured and careful steps to where she was working. “What are you working on?”

She looked up at him in surprise, not quite believing that he was actually interested in what she was doing. The only time he was ever interested in the work of the GD scientists was when it was threatening the livelihood of the town and forced its’ way into Carter’s normally clear path.

She gave him a skeptical look.

“Are you being serious, or are you simply trying to make small talk to bring up some other issue?”

He gave her a sober look. 

“Completely serious.”

At that, she let out a small laugh, obviously not convinced that he was being sincere. Surprisingly enough, for once he really _was_ being sincere. He actually really wanted to know…so that he could spy on her more effectively, of course.

“Yeah,” he said, motioning his hand full of coffee in her direction. “I’m curious as to what a GD scientist does on a regular workday. What puzzles of the universe are you trying to solve on a weekly, even daily basis? I figure, if I can get a better feel for what GD does, the better prepared I can be for the anything and everything that happens around Eureka.”

She completely turned away from her desk and gave him a long look…and then a slight smile crept over the corner of her mouth.

“It’s a good idea, Carter, but most of the stuff, is, well…above your head?” He looked affronted at her comment, so she quickly amended her statement with, “It’s not that you aren’t smart, Jack, it’s just…I only have so much time and, believe it or not, I have to answer to Fargo as to how I spend my work hours.”

He gave her a look and then a sly grin crossed his lips.

“How about you tell me which project has you so distracted this morning.”

She gave him an odd look, as though trying to gauge how serious he was being, but she was surprised when he spoke up.

“Look, I know I’m not like you guys…” _Because I’m way smarter than you idiots,_ he thought to himself. “But,” he continued, “I _do_ know that sometimes it helps to get a fresh perspective on the immensely complex things that you work on by being forced to explain them in simplistic or layman’s terms. Helps you see things that you wouldn’t normally see, you know? Like a step back from the microscopic, sub-atomic scales that you’re used to, and instead looking at them from the real-world scale…”

Allison seemed surprised by his insight but didn’t deny that he was right.

“Well,” she said, drawing out the word slightly. “I guess I _have_ been a bit, uh, _too_ focused recently…tunnel vision and such.”

He gave her a nod and lifted the coffee cup that was supposed to be hers towards her again, taking a long sip, not noticing the faint frown she sent in his direction, wincing slightly at the bitter taste, as it was Alison’s blend and not his usual.

Her brow furrowed as she remarked, “However, if I’m going to do this than you better drink that coffee here and not in the lab. No food or beverage is allowed in any of the labs at GD.”

He heard the warning tone in her voice and gave her a sheepish smile before retorting with,

“Does Vincent’s Food and Beverage department know this? I think they might have missed the memo.” He grinned at her and gave himself an inward crow of success at his jab when she let out a long-suffering sigh and then left her chair and began to walk out of the office.

Before she left, she tossed one last comment over her shoulder…

“No coffee in _my_ lab, then.”

He smiled to himself, following her down the halls to her laboratory, drinking the bad coffee as he went. This was going to be easier than he thought it would be.

\--

An hour later, he was driving back into town, taking the long way around Eureka, as it gave him time to clear his head and to focus on some of thesis papers that he’d recently been working on and planning to submit to the Department. He didn’t publish, but he still did research for them and they kept all of his notes on file.

They were the only ones with the people who could understand his work.

The scientists at GD were children with Legos compared to what he and the people at the Group did. At times, he wanted nothing more than to throttle some of them for their sheer disregard for what was going on in the other departments at GD. The problem with the scientists at Global Dynamics was the fact that all of them were so focused on their individual projects, that they didn’t necessarily think about how it would affect other departments and other experiments that were going on at the same time, which is why they ended up with so many accidents…

…which was _exactly_ the reason why the Group had sent him.

At that thought, he sighed, and then thought of the few people who weren’t that way.

Henry, for one. Vincent for another. And, though it wasn’t always true, Fargo to some extent. It was strange, his relationship with the head of GD. Fargo easily had the most power in the entire town…but he constantly deferred to him, Sheriff Jack Carter, the _perceived_ town idiot, for advice and reassurance. In a way, it made himself the true power in the town…which, _technically_ , was the truth. Though no one was supposed know, of course.

However, that then brought him to the last person, who was really the first person that he’d thought of. Jo.

A faint smile lingered on his lips as he thought of her.

Best deputy he’d ever had, and one of the closest friends that he’d ever had. No, scratch that. _The_ closest friend that he’d ever had.

There were very few people that he’d even _consider_ telling his huge secret to, but out of all of them, Jo was at the top of the list. And she always would be. He knew that she would cast no judgment against him for doing what he was doing, and he knew that she would keep the secret. No matter what.

When at first, they’d butted heads, they had quickly developed a rhythm between the two of them that was comfortable and predictable.

Speaking of the ex-Deputy…

He saw her stroll into Café Diem at her usual brisk pace, so he decided to follow, realizing that he hadn’t asked her to check in on Zane. As he walked into the town’s favorite bistro, he smiled as he heard her order for herself a spinach and queso fresco salad with a fruit dish on the side. Typical Jo.

His smile still plastered on his face, he walked over behind her and was pleased to see that he startled her when he placed a hand on her waist and said to Vincent, “I’ll have the a smoothie with every single piece of fruit you can think of Vincent, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all Sheriff,” he said, a grin on his face at seeing the head of GD security surprised by the older man.

“Hey, Jo…” he said, giving her a playful look. “Fancy running into _you_ here…”

She rolled her eyes and walked over to a table, where he joined her, sitting opposite her, crossing his legs. Jo then gave him a look, obviously trying to glare at him, but it soon dissolved into a smile that she was still trying to keep from fully stretching across her lips. Finally, she gave up at trying to suppress it and let out a small laugh, which he returned, but then went slightly serious.

“Don’t do that to me, Carter…next time, you’ll have broken fingers, you hear me?”

He nodded.

“Duly noted.”

Jo then adjusted herself in her chair, leaning back slightly and he didn’t miss the quick once over she gave him before locking eyes with him.

“So, Jack…why are you here? Is there some sort of calamity at GD? Cause, if there is, it’s going to have to wait until I get my lunch. I haven’t eaten since five this morning,” she said, looking longingly in the direction of the other patron’s plates of food around her.

Carter let out a half laugh and shook his head and answered, “No, nothing like that. More of a…well, a person problem. Singular. At GD…”

He let his sentence linger and watched with some amusement as she put the pieces together on her own. There was only one person who really fit the bill for trouble at Global Dynamics…

“Zane? Oh, great, what’d he do this time?”

The sheriff let out another small laugh and shook his head in the negative once more. “Nothing, not yet…” He saw her look of panic at his choice of words, so he quickly amended them. “Nothing that I _know_ of. I just,” he gestured with a hand, “Want to keep a closer eye on him more than usual, that’s all, and I’d like you to be the one to do it. Is that okay? I’ll pay you extra,” he deftly added.

A faint devious and slightly manic grin that he’d seen many times before crossed her lips.

“A chance to get on his nerves _and_ get paid for it? Hell, Carter, I’ll do it for free just to see him squirm.”

He smiled.

“Yeah…thought you might.”

Just as he finished speaking, Vincent arrived with both of their meals.

“Sheriff, your smoothie…Jo, your very healthy, and might I say delicious, wholesome lunch. Enjoy you two,” Vincent finished, and then walked away, a slight smile on his lips for some unknown reason. Carter caught the faint smirk on the man’s face and he worried and looked at the drink in his hands. Had Vincent done something to it?

He saw Jo glance at him as he looked at his cup and she shot him a concerned look over her fork, and inquired curiously, “You okay, Jack?”

Realizing that Jo was staring, he quickly shook himself from his reverie and gave her his usual dazzling smile, not realizing the effect that it had on her, and gave her a reassuring nod.

“Yeah, I’m fine, Jo. It’s been a long time since it’s just been the two of us for lunch. It’s nice,” he added in a fond tone, and as he did, he saw what looked like a faint blush on her cheeks, but brushed it aside, and the two of them struck up a conversation about the Penguins hockey game the night before, both of them very much enjoying their impromptu lunch date. As soon as it was over, he escorted her to her car, his hand unconsciously at the small of her back, and he gave her another smile.

“Nice seeing you, Jo.”

She returned his bright smile with a soft one of her own. 

“You, too, Jack.” She turned to get into her car, but then paused after she opened the door and looked back at him and then asked, “Do it again sometime?”

He smiled.

“Sure. Love to.”

And with that, she left and for the first time, in a long time, he felt a flicker of actual happiness. And not a single thought of his assignment or the Group graced his mind during his entire walk back to his house. He was happy, it had been a good day…and he was happy.


	3. Suspicions

Jack was, unfortunately, wide awake and unable to sleep. For some unknown reason, he was wired. His nerves were jittery, as if he’d just had six cups of Sarah’s home brewed coffee, and he couldn’t seem to sit still, let alone sleep. His mind was still going over the information that he’d gleaned from Allison’s tour of her lab and her project.

\--

_“Twelve of the subjects have reacted well, but the other eight have had some unprecedented side-effects, so I’m having to rerun the trials…”_

_“Unprecedented? As in, unexpected?”_

_She let out a long sigh, and then gestured to the screen that held the information on it._

_“Well, yes…which is honestly what is confusing me. I’ve been referring to Johnson’s research for most of it, and from what I was able to understand of it, this shouldn’t be happening in my trials. In fact, the opposite is implied. I just can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong…”_

_He had to hold back a grin at what he’d just heard her say. Finally, he could take it no longer, so he asked…_

_“Johnson? Someone at GD I should know about?”_

_She shook her head, straightening up and leaning against the table, crossing her arms over her chest._

_“No, no one at GD. Johnson is a scientist who was employed by the Department of Defense when he was only seventeen. The only name that anyone has for him is simply Johnson. No one knows if that’s his first or last name, but it honestly doesn’t matter. The man’s a genius!” She gave him a pointed look, an eyebrow raised. “And by genius, I mean he’s a genius compared to all of the scientists here in Eureka.”_

_At that, Carter let out a low whistle of “surprise”, while trying to not laugh at what he was hearing._

_“So…what’s so important about his research in relation to your project?”_

_Allison let out another sigh, dropping her hands to the desk to rest on either side of her as she explained._

_“He’s a savant in bio-engineering, as well as mechanical engineering. Got two doctorates by the time he was seventeen and made pioneering advances into biological technology. He was literally the person who jump-started the whole idea of getting rid of doctors entirely to instead have a complete array of artificially intelligent nano-bots put into the body while still in the womb and to grow_ with _the host body and automatically take care of any underlying diseases, recording any and all medical issues onto a chip that they were all remotely linked to when they were first inserted…but it’s never been done.”_

_Jack gave her one of his typical looks, and then asked, even though he already knew the answer, “Why not?”_

_She gave him a pointed look._

_“Because Johnson is a total recluse, and no one knows where he is. He disappeared about eighteen years ago, along with all of his research, and hasn’t been heard from since.”_

_His brow furrowed slightly, and the tone that came out was mocking, though she didn’t know it._

_“Well, why haven’t people just used the research that he’d already done and make these, uh, nano thingies?”_

_Crossing her arms once more in front of her chest, she quickly explained the problem. “Because even_ we _can’t decipher his research. His I.Q. is off the chart, and he coded most of the copies of his research notes because he was paranoid that someone would steal his life’s work. The notes we do have are_ still _even mostly above our heads. Johnson is absolutely_ brilliant _, and I’ve give anything to pick his brain about the work of his that I’m using.”_

_She shook her head, and he bit the inside of his lip to keep from smiling at her predicament._

_Jack had seen the notes of his that she’d been using, and he knew exactly where she was messing up, and could suggest something to her in a roundabout way, using layman’s terms…but he preferred to watch her sweat it out, for more than the simple reason of seeing her struggle at something for once in her life._

_The other reason why he wasn’t attempting to help was that he’d seen what she was trying to use it for…and it was walking a fine line between smart and devastatingly dangerous._

_He gave her a sideways look as she showed him something else._

_Yes…he needed to keep a close eye on her._

\--

All of this passed through his mind as he got up from his bed and walked downstairs for a midnight snack, remembering the D&D game that he’d had with Fargo earlier that evening. As usual, Fargo had beaten him, but he didn’t mind. He wasn’t all that great at role-playing games.

He opened the fridge and looked at what he had…not much.

“Uh…Sarah?” he said tentatively, not sure if she was active, but then felt relief when she said…

“YES, SHERIFF?”

He smiled and said, “I was wondering what we have in the way of snacks. I’m feeling kind of hungry.”

“OF COURSE, SHERIFF. WE HAVE CHEESE, PICKLES, PRETZELS, CRACKERS, SALTINES--” He cut her off. “Uh, what about sweet snacks…like cookies?” There was a pause, and then, “WE HAVE OATMEAL RAISIN, CHOCOLATE CHIP, SNICKERDOODLES--” He cut her off again. “Where are the snickerdoodles?”

“TOP CUPBOARD, FIRST SHELF, FAR RIGHT.”

“Thank you, Sarah.”

With that, he walked over and grabbed the box, and then pulled out the large gallon of milk from the fridge, not bothering with a glass.

The milk in one hand, the package of cookies in the other, he moved to the living room. After putting the cookies and milk to either side of him, within easy reach, he grabbed the remote and turned on the tv, determined to watch some mindless television. After flipping through some channels, he was inordinately pleased to find cartoons; and not just any cartoons, but specifically Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. His favorite.

Feeling very much carefree, he opened the cookies and milk and a long sigh of contentment escaped him as he took a bite of the snickerdoodle and a long swig of milk along with it.

As he watched the coyote set up a large acme weight to fall onto the roadrunner, he couldn’t help but think that Jo would enjoy this as well. She was a sucker for cartoons, though she would deny it to anyone else but him and, for as healthy as she was, she had a major sweet tooth that she caved into every now and again.

He continued to watch cartoons and eat cookies, until the next thing he knew he was waking up to blaring music.

Jack glanced down at himself and saw that he’d gone through half of the package of cookies and nearly the entire gallon of milk. As he stood up, crumbs fell from his shirt to the floor, while a few of them still tenaciously hung on to the dark blue cotton of his shirt. Absently, he brushed his hands over his shirt and gray sweatpants, dusting himself off, and then looked around to see what time it was, but no clock was in view.

“Sarah, what time is it?” he asked as he turned off the television, wincing slightly at the loud sound.

“IT IS 7:30. YOUR ALARM IS SUPPOSED TO GO OFF IN TEN MINUTES, SHERIFF…WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO CANCEL IT?”

“Yeah,” he said absently, not quite paying attention. “Sure.”

Feeling slightly disoriented after sleeping on the couch, he put the cookies and the milk away and then headed back upstairs to take his shower and get ready for the day.

As soon as he’d dried off and slipped into his uniform, he was feeling distinctly more like himself, and much less disoriented. He slid on his belt and clipped his sidearm on, the heavy weight familiar and comforting to him, grounding him back down to reality. It was out of character for him to be so careless, that much was certain. The only explanation he could think of was that he was regressing because he was stressed over what Allison was doing in her lab.

Mind heavy, he took the jeep on into town, stopping at Café Diem for his morning coffee.

Stepping in, he quickly spotted Vincent and ordered his usual: one coffee with two shots of espresso, three sugars, and some cream on top. He smiled slightly as he paid the man, remembering running into Jo there just the day before, and then walked back to his car…where he nearly ran into the woman that occupied his thoughts.

“Jack…!” she said, startled, as he put his hand out to grip her shoulder and keep the both of them from toppling over.

He held on for a moment longer than was strictly necessary and was curious about the faint pink tinge to her cheeks as he did so, similar to her look the day before.

“Hey, Jo. Fancy running into you here… _again_.”

He slowly pulled back, and she gave him a faint smile, almost awkward, and he quickly broke the tension by saying,

“I just need to ask you one thing: can you please break that promise you made to me yesterday at lunch? I’d like to keep my fingers…” He grinned at her, and her awkward smile turned into a genuine one with just a twist of the corner of her mouth.

“Sure thing, Jack…I mean, Carter. Sheriff.”

He looked at her, confused by her fumbling, and then reassured her.

“Jo, you can call me Jack. You always have, remember?” She nodded, and then left him standing there in confusion as she scampered off to her car and drove out of sight, heading off to GD in an invisible cloud of energetic particles.

Jo never scampered. It wasn’t in her nature; she was a lion, not a squirrel…but at that thought, he laughed to himself. If Jo knew that he’d compared her to such an animal, she would have hurt him five times over, but as it was she didn’t, so he let himself laugh about it.

Jack finally shrugged, and then walked across the street to the Sheriff’s station.

Time to go to work.

Protect and serve.

\--

Jack stared at the screen, his eyes slightly glazed over, not listening to a word that was being said, certain that his brain was about to implode at their stupidity. They actually thought that this was going to _work?_ Dear god, they didn’t know what they were dealing with, did they?

He mentally rolled his eyes as he heard another theory being thrown around, and then smiled when he saw Jo slide into the room.

“Hey, Carter,” she said to him from the corner of her mouth. “What’s going on with the geek squad?”

He gave her one of his smiles, unaware of its effect on her nervous system, and said, “Oh, impending doom, all of their plans going to hell in a handbasket…so, the usual.”

She flashed him a grin, but for some reason, to him at least, it seemed a bit shaky.

He watched her carefully as she uncharacteristically brought a hand up to her hair and pulled a strand back behind her ear, only to drop her hand back down and slide both of them into her pockets; a nervous habit that he hadn’t seen her use in a few months. The last time she’d been like this had been when she’d been thinking about asking out the newest deputy…

At that, something clicked in his head.

Jack opened his mouth to say something, but then Alison said his name.

“Jack, what do you think?”

He looked up at her and was surprised to see everyone’s eyes glued to him, as if they were all waiting for him to come up with yet another simplistic solution for their problem. Even though he’d only been listening to some of their issues, he knew how to fix it…but, goddammit, he was sick and tired of fixing their problems for them.

He took a deep breath, and then said, “You know, I wasn’t really listening and pretty much all of that was over my head. So…guess you’re gonna have to figure it out on your own. But hey,” he added, flashing them one of his broad smiles. “That’s what you’re good at, right?”

There were plenty of sarcasm in his words, but of course, everyone was unaware of it and simply smiled and turned back to their computer screens, once more talking amongst themselves.

However, as he walked out with Jo right next to him, he could feel her staring at him with an unsure look, as if she had somehow sensed his mocking tone. He hoped not. He couldn’t afford to have anyone know his secret, not even Jo.

As he walked out of GD, he noticed that Jo still hadn’t left his side, and he inwardly smiled. She obviously needed to talk to him, but hadn’t found the courage to say anything just quite yet. Deciding to make things a bit easier for her, he decided to start first.

“So, Jo…what’s up?”

And, just like that, his question seemed to open up a door between them.

She let out a sigh of relief and said, “Not all that much, actually, which is the reason why I wanted to talk to you. I was wondering if…well, if you were doing anything tonight.”

He smiled broadly and shook his head.

“Not a plan in the world, actually. Why? Did you have something in mind?”

She gave him a tentative smile as she absently ran her hands over her sport coat, wiping away imaginary dust. They continued to walk in silence for a few moments longer, and he knew that she was trying to get up the courage to actually ask him out, but he wasn’t going to push her into it. So, he waited. If anything was going to happen between them, she had to be the one who initiated it. Jack knew that about her and would let her get to it in her own time.

Finally, she said, “I, uh, was hoping we could catch a bite to eat. Maybe at Café Diem? Tonight? At, uh, around seven?”

He gave her another smile and nodded.

“I’d love to.”

At those three words, she smiled and all of tension had disappeared. He impulsively reached out his hand and touched her on the arm, neutral territory, and then added, “Afterwards, ice cream at the house? Sarah makes some killer root beer floats.”

Jo hesitated for a moment, but then nodded.

“Sounds good.”

And with that, their plans were made. Jack smiled to himself as he headed back to the station, knowing that a load of paperwork waited for him. For everything that was automated, they hadn’t touched the sheriff’s department, and, for that, he was immensely grateful. Despite all of his complaints about paperwork, there was something satisfying about being able to physically handle paper and pen, something that filled a need to work that the cold touch of a stylus to a computer screen didn’t.

As he went through the paperwork, however, he stumbled across a permit request…from Zane. Dammit. Just what he didn’t need. Carefully, he read through it, trying to see what the jerk wanted this time, and saw that it was for a building a dangerous piece of equipment out of range of GD. Huh. For once, he was taking precautions.

In that case, he would allow it. Finally, it looked like the man was developing a sense of responsibility…but then he paused and took another look at the paper. There was something about the wording in the letter that threw him off…and then he saw the pattern.

Linguistically, it was _similar_ to Zane, but it wasn’t him who had written it. Allison had.

Shit.

This was _exactly_ what he was worried about. At realizing that it was going to take him a while to sort out why Allison needed the land, he let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his hair. This was going to take while…and just might get in the way of dinner with Jo.

Jack looked at the phone and debated over whether or not he should call her…and then decided against it. No. He would finish in time for his date with her. He was not willing to jeopardize the one possibly good thing that was left in this town. Jo Lupo did not deserve to be put on the back burner; no, she was someone to be kept first and foremost in his thoughts at all times, even behind what the Department was asking him to do.

Digging in, he began to pull out every file that had Zane’s name on it, making sure that he hadn’t missed any other forged memos from Allison. If she was so desperate that she was trying to hide what she was doing behind _Zane’s_ name, then he was going to make sure that it didn’t happen.

\--

Six hours later, just before his rendezvous with Jo, Carter finished and let out a breath of relief as he leaned back in his chair, pushing it back from the desk with a firm shove. Time for his date with Jo; he was _not_ going to miss it, no matter what Alli threw his way.

He stood up and reached for a spare shirt in the cabinet behind his desk, switching out his uniform shirt for a white dress shirt, the top two buttons undone.

He glanced in the mirror before he left, and he smiled at what he saw. For the first time in a long time, he actually looked happy…and he _felt_ happy. With a slight bounce in his step, he walked out of the building, locking it behind him, and headed to Café Diem.

As he approached, he saw Jo already sitting inside on a stool at the counter, talking avidly with Vincent about something that had her throwing her head back and laughing in such a way that Jack couldn’t help but wonder what was said, and how he could make her laugh that way around him. She was a woman in every sense of the word, even though she didn’t realize it. Being raised in a military family with only brothers would make any girl think that she could never be seen in a womanly way by any man…but he was the exception.

Jo was perfect to him in every way.

Shrugging off the thought, he wandered inside, putting on a casual air, not wanting to scare her off with his certainty. Because he _knew_ , unlike so many other people, that if he was going to be with anyone in Eureka, it was with Jo Lupo.

“Hey, Jo,” he said, putting a hand on her hip. “Ready to eat?”

She turned her head in his direction, apparently not surprised by his appearance, and nodded.

“Oh, yeah. By the way,” she added, smirking as she slid off the stool and headed towards a booth, “I saw you standing there staring. Not exactly subtle, Carter.”

He ducked his head shyly, but it was in sharp contrast to the confidence in his eyes as he sat down across from her and said, “Wasn’t going for subtle, Jo. Thought you’d appreciate a more direct approach. No mind games.”

Her whole body seemed to relax at his words, and she let out a relieved sigh.

“God, is it that obvious?”

He laughed and shook his head.

“No. Only someone who knows you well would see it. Someone like me,” he added, smirking, and she grinned and let out a small laugh of her own as she replied, “Good to know. Anything else I’ve been putting out there that I should know about?”

Jack shook his head and leaned back, crossing his ankle over his knee, unaware of the effect that the action had on her, as he said, “No, nothing important,” when in fact he could read her effortlessly, small micro-expressions of want and desperate need for affection crossing her eyes and lips. He relished in it, knowing that it was all for him and, at that moment, was glad for his intellect, as it told him that he was heading the right direction with her.

“So,” he drawled out. “Dinner?”

She smiled.

“Dinner sounds good.”

He smiled right back, again unaware of the effect that it had on the woman in front of him. The effect that it had always had.

“Great.”


End file.
